Africa

Following the success of the Ghana Beds Project, I’m now launching my next fundraising campaign to build a community development centre for women in Ghana living with HIV/AIDS.

Click on the above image of Salimatu to find out more about the campaign.

In support of the work of community-based organisation Kaleo Area Women’s Development Association (KAWDA), the centre will be a place where women and children living with HIV/AIDS can meet regularly for support meetings, educational workshops, literacy and employable skills training classes, and free confidential HIV testing and counseling.

It’s a large-scale project and every penny will help, so any donations, no matter how small, will make a difference. Also, any suggestions about how to raise the money are very welcome.

To find out more or to donate to this campaign, click here or on the image above.

For the members of KAWDA, the centre will serve as a safe haven where they can meet in confidence and share their experiences and concerns with others like them without fear of their HIV status being exposed to members of their communities.

KAWDA was founded in 2002 by concerned community members Albert and Evelyn Annadie with a vision to protect and support vulnerable women and children.

KAWDA’s main focus is now providing support to women and children, and increasingly men, who are suffering the ravages of HIV/AIDS, while also seeking to raise awareness of HIV transmission with education programmes in local schools and community meetings.

The men, women and children become members of KAWDA through a referral from the hospital when they are tested positive for HIV. The organisation currently provides support to over a hundred members.

Such is the stigma attached to HIV in Ghana that many of KAWDA’s members, if not all, feel they cannot share their HIV status with even their closest family members for fear of rejection and persecution. KAWDA therefore serves as an important support network for them.

The centre will be built on a plot of land already owned by the organisation near the town of Bekwai in Ghana’s Ashanti region.

For more information about KAWDA visit our Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/kawdaghana, and to donate to this campaign click here to visit out FundRazr page.